Gender Based Violence The Benue Experience

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Gender Based Violence The Benue Experience

• Professor Charity Angya

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What is Gender Violence?

• Any act of violence related to gender that is
  likely to result in physical, sexual or
  psychological harm or suffering (especially to
  women)
• These also include threats, coercion or arbitrary
  deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in
  public or private life

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Violence against women contd.

• Violence against women is understood to
  encompass, but not limited to the following
• Physical, sexual and psychological violence
  occurring in the family, including battering,
  sexual abuse of female children in the household,
  dowry-related violence, marital rape, female
  genital mutilation and other traditional
  practices harmful to women, non spousal violence
  and violence related to exploitation

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VAW contd

• Physical, sexual and psychological violence
  occurring within the general community, including
  rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and
  intimidation at work, in educational institutions
  and elsewhere, trafficking in women and forced
  prostitution

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VAW contd.

• Physical, sexual and psychological violence
  perpetrated or condoned by the state, wherever it
  occurs
• Domestic violence is the most prevalent form of
  violence

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Forms of domestic violence

• Physical violence the most visible evidence
• Comprises slapping, jostling, shoving, kicking,
  biting, choking, battering with fists or objects,
  arm twisting, holding against ones will,
  burning, cutting with a knife or other objects,
  inflicting wounds or locking in

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DV contd

• Sexual violence
• Taking advantage of another person forcing
  her/him against the persons will to perform
  sexual acts
• Economic violence
• Includes refusal of basic necessities such as
  food or medicine, depriving victim of income or
  controlling it

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Prevalence of VAW

• One out of three women world wide becomes a
  victim at the hands of her partner
• For a woman the danger of getting hurt, raped or
  killed by her present or former partner is bigger
  than being threatened by someone else
• Domestic violence is the biggest threat to
  womens lives above rape, assaults and car
  accidents

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Forms of DV contd

• Psychological violence can be both physical and
  emotional and includes direct acts in which
  perpetrator insults, degrades, berates or
  threatens victim
• Can be indirect acts such as assaults on persons
  directly connected to the victim such as
  children, relatives or friends or property is
  damaged

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Dv contd

• Psychological violence is subtle
• Victims confidence and independence
  systematically undermined
• Difficult to take legal action as there are no
  hard facts

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Benue Experience

• Statistics not readily available on a wider scale
  as to prevalence rates
• Isolated studies carried out reveal that VAW is a
  big problem in the state
• Need for baseline surveys and coordination of
  surveys to provide data for effective planning

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Benue Experience contd

• Preliminary surveys indicate that VAW cuts across
  different classes of women
• Factors driving the violence include
• Cultural practices, beliefs, traditions
• Culture of silence
• Discrimination in formal statutory, customary and
  religious laws
• Benue yet to accept any provisions of CEDAW into
  legislation

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VAW and Maternal Mortality

• Violence against women especially in its most
  prevalent form (domestic violence) is a cross
  cutting issue in maternal mortality prevalence
• Women are under pressure to conceive and they
  face violence from partners and relatives. The
  pressure amounts to psychological torture

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Maternal Mortality contd

• The deprivations women face in the home adversely
  affect their maternal health
• A number of women are physically assaulted though
  pregnant
• Negative health seeking behaviors of women are
  usually as a result of psychological and economic
  abuse
• Health workers, state law enforcement officers
  and social workers in a number of cases are a
  source of discouragement to victims of domestic
  violence

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Suggested Strategies

• state should fulfill its responsibility of
  implementing human rights conventions and passing
  and implementing corresponding laws
• projects should be carried out to combat and
  prevent VAW
• Training judges, public prosecutors and police to
  implement laws

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• Monitoring the way of coping with gender
  violence, improving the support and protection of
  victims
• Training journalists to positively influence
  public discourse through changing gender
  stereotypes
• Proclaiming violence in the private sphere is a
  human rights violation

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• Encouraging people to reflect on traditional
  values
• Developing a cultural identity that does not
  violate rights
• Changing traditions which encourage VAW and
  discriminating values
• Turning religious leaders into advocates , using
  religious networks for changing attitudes

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• Teaching medical personnel to recognise domestic
  violence as a health risk and to take it
  seriously, set up contact between victims and
  supportive institutions as well as provide social
  and legal counseling
• Training teachers to encourage children and
  adolescents to critically reflect gender
  stereotypes, teach and demonstrate
  conflict-resolving behaviour

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• Increasing lobbying to eliminate stereotypical
  educational measures and teaching materials
• Empowering women
• Giving support and protection

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• According to Nelson Mandela structures of
  violence are pased from one generation to the
  next. Violence is learned from the forefathers,
  victims learn from tormentors, and nothing ends
  the violence-generating circumstances.
• Lets break the culture of violence

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• Thank you